1.7.9-Columbina
Brick!Club 1.7.9 - 1.7.11 Everyone else disappeared so I disappeared too! Not out of anything Not Good but just out of laziness. Without you lot motivating me I get distracted! '''1.7.9 A Place where Convictions are in Process of Formation In which Columbina discovers she feels about the law the way other people do about their younger siblings - namely, only I’M allowed to make fun of it and talk about how horrible it is. I am quite surprised by this defensiveness. Also, I find it hilarious how Hugo portrays lawyers as such terrible people, but the law students we meet are pretty decent blokes, when in my experience, lawyers are really lovely people and law students are terrible excuses for human beings. The passage about how the counsel for the defence talks sounds far more like what you hear from over-achieving law students in tutorials than anything I’ve ever heard inside a law firm. Then we have the irony of his useless defence arguing that while the accused is probably Valjean, which we know he’s not, he definitely didn’t steal the apples, which, just like in a real court of law, we can’t be sure of, but I’m going to go with he probably did, because that’s how I expect Hugo to mess with us. After all, we’ve got Proven Douchebag Bamatabois getting ready to judge Proven Innocent Champmathieu because subtlety is for losers. '''1.7.10 The System of Denials I am really concerned by the extent to which Les Mis stuff keeps making me dig up old law notes. In this case it was a couple of reports on well, excursions, I guess, to watch court proceedings. Those always made me feel a little seedy about law, they were the only times I ever really got on board with Hugo and his whole this terrible room where fates are decided thing. Probably because those are the only criminal cases I ever saw, but mostly because it just felt a bit awful having these gawking teenagers in there taking notes on the sad-looking middle aged supermarket manager who’d stolen a bunch of money from the store to feed his gambling addiction so they could write a 1,000 word report when they got home. I’m not sure exactly where I was going with that, but I guess that there was something in Champmathieu’s rambling and the crowd laughing at him that reminded me. That tricky line between transparency and public humiliation, I guess. Anyway. I really cannot blame anyone in that courtroom for not believing Champmathieu - nevermind the dodgy circumstantial evidence, there are four witnesses, at least one of whom is of very good standing, another who recognised him unprompted, no trace can be found of the only person he claims could account for his character / whereabouts during those 19 years… it’s pretty damning stuff. After all, they can hardly turn around a do a DNA check or somesuch. Why should they listen to Champmathieu? After all, he’s got plenty to lose and nothing to gain. He’s an ignorant peasant who seems to think that flat-out denial is his best chance of getting off the hook. He’s up against Javert, I mean come on. What would you rather they did, Hugo? Believe every peasant who didn’t confess? That’s how you end up with confessions being beaten out of people. Finally, I’m laughing way too hard at the twenty person chorus of “M. MADELEINE!” '''1.7.11 Champmathieu more and more Astonished After appearing out of nowhere, Valjean owns up to his past, the name, the identity, the crimes, and everyone struggles to reconcile this information with their preconceived notions - the whole courtroom kind of does a reverse Javert - bad mna??/ but maYOR?/. clothses ncei??? how convict???????????? It’s there right from the very moment he steps forward: “They could not believe that that tranquil man had been the one to give that terrible outcry.” Then everyone is very moved and sympathetic to his story and it’s this beautiful, almost holy moment for everyone in the room. But then he gets arrested anyway. Also, in case you were only skim reading when Valjean was first introduced, Hugo takes this chance to remind us that “the galleys make the convict what he is”, and I could be more sarcastic about this if it wasn’t still so true. Something that did crack me up though, was “I wish Javert were here; he would recognize me.” “AW MAN, where’s Javert when you need him? He’d make sure I went to prison!” and “the President that he was there to preside” I NEVER REALISED THAT WAS WHAT PRESIDENT MEANT BEFORE THIS MOMENT OH MY GOD. I am learning so much. "All of you, all who are present—consider me worthy of pity, do you not? Good God! When I think of what I was on the point of doing, I consider that I am to be envied. Nevertheless, I should have preferred not to have had this occur." I’m sorry he’s just so chill about it. But I do like this, even though I am usually pretty eye-rolly at anyone being glad of the chance to martyr themselves. Because he’s at peace with himself after however many pages of worrying about what to do, he’s done it and he’s so confident he’s made the right choice that he thinks he should be envied. Good on you, JVJ. But omg poor Champmathieu, one day he’s just walking along, he finds a branch (APPARENTLY, I still don’t trust him), he’s like “Aw yeah, gonna have apple pie for dinner” and suddenly he is arrested and they’re saying he stole the apples and then some guy’s saying he’s Jean Valjean and then three other guys are saying he’s Jean Valjean and then some other guy in a fancy suit is saying no HE’S Jean Valjean and then they let him go home again. I WOULD BE IN A STATE OF STUPEFACTION TOO.